Fixing Taunton City Hall will cost between $14.5 and $23.2 million

After months of speculation, the City Council Tuesday night finally got to examine a feasibility study by an architectural firm indicating the potential cost for repairing and renovating the water-damaged City Hall on Summer Street.

After months of speculation, the City Council Tuesday night finally got to examine a feasibility study by an architectural firm indicating the potential cost for repairing and renovating the water-damaged City Hall on Summer Street.

City Hall downtown has been closed since Aug. 17, 2010, when an arson fire broke out in the historic building’s fourth-floor attic. Since that time council meetings, and the majority of municipal departments, were relocated to the former Lowell Maxham School on Oak Street.

The evaluation and re-use study summary provided project cost estimates ranging from $14.5 million to $23.2 million for three design options previously discussed by the council.

The two less expensive options would either preserve or relocate and enlarge the former council chambers, while the most expensive calls for replacing the older rear portion with a new larger addition, as well as demolishing the separate brick annex building behind City Hall where they offices of Conservation Commission and Planning are located.

“(The costs are) in the range I expected — it’s not a shock or surprise to me,” Building Department Superintendent Wayne Walkden said.

He said a final report likely will be presented to the city within a month.

Councilman Donald Cleary said he found the presentation by representatives of Durkee Brown Viveiros and Werenfels of Providence to be excellent.

Cleary at one point suggested a fourth option to consider moving the police department into Maxham, which would increase parking and negate the need to accommodate the adjacent Star Theater.

The owner of that empty and deteriorating building, Michael O’Donnell, did not allow the architectural firm to more comprehensively assess how to rebuild City Hall without damaging the Star, Cleary said.

Walkden cautioned that any new option would require a new study, which he stressed is not viable. “We just don’t have the money,” he said.

To date, the city has spent more than $250,000 on the feasibility study, Walkden said.

Sherry Costa Hanlon reiterated what she recommended to Walkden months ago urging that “third-party” entity provide its own cost analysis.

Walkden said that would be completely unnecessary. He said companies responding to requests for proposals will provide their own estimates, and the figures contained in the feasibility study are by design conservative and realistic.

Councilman David Pottier said he looks forward to the mayor’s office looking into the possibility of tapping potentially unspent bond money from previous school construction projects.

Pottier also said there’s always the chance that the state budget will include an increase in local aid dollars to the city.

The city was only awarded a $4.8 million insurance settlement. A third of that amount has been withheld and is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the city against former carrier Axis Insurance.

Page 2 of 2 - Tuesday night’s City Council meeting didn’t wrap until until 11:30 p.m. A call seeking comment Wednesday from Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. was not returned by press time on Wednesday.